"Babe! Come over here! Bring Nate!" Beyond yelled for his husband, Lawleit. Holding tight to his four year old son, Mail's hand as the toddler urged forward in the store.
"Daddy come on! Let me go, I wanna see it!" Mail screamed. The 'It' he was referring too, was of course, the new Nintendo portable gaming console that had people gathering in front of it. Gamers mostly, or parents with their young, excited children. Mail was, without a doubt, the youngest of those children.
Some parents in his Pre-K class scolded the two men for letting their adopted son be so entranced by video games. Claiming that it ruined his imagination. But, to each his own. If Mail wanted to play video games, it wasn't their position to deprive him of that. It wasn't as if he wasn't an active child. There was no harm to letting the child have something he wanted.
Lawleit walked back to them, slowly for he was holding the hand of their second son. 2 year old, Nate. Whom was just learning to walk by himself.
"Coming B!"
"Well hurry up! I cant keep your son under control forever!"
"Excuse me? But I think the last time I checked he was our son. Not just mine."
"Yeah yeah, you know what I meant. Give me Nate, you take Mail." At B's request, the two switched children. Beyond scooping the younger child into his arms and resting him on his hip. Lawleit took Mail's hand and was quickly tugged into the massive crowd of interested people. Beyond stayed behind, knowing Nate got anxious in large groups of people like that, as did he. When the father-son duo returned, Mail was had the Nintendo in his hand, waving it up at his fathers proudly. Beyond looked at Lawleit.
"I had to okay. You know very well of the face." 'The face' in reference to Mail's 'Please Daddy, please?' puppy dog eyes, whimpering, pouting, anything he had to do to get what he wanted. Of course, it wasn't very hard for the four year old to get what he pleased, because his parents loved spoiling him. They spoiled their children, simply because they could.
"You know, four years is long enough to get used to the face L." Beyond scolding playfully. Bending down slightly to ruff a hand through Mails hair before patting it down again.
"C'mon, its almost bed time kiddos. And we have to stop for dinner as well. We need to get going." Beyond declared to his family. Mail jumped onto L's back as he placed his goggles onto his eyes. Beyond took L's free hand and the duo walked towards the mall exit. The two men buckled their sons into the back seat of their silver sedan. The drive to "Lemon Grass", Beyond and Mail's favorite restaurant wasn't very far. As they hectically unloaded their car, since Mail didn't want to get off his console for dinner and Lawleit had a rule about gaming at the dinner table. Beyond had to rip it from the toddlers hands, which resulted in Mail screaming bloody murder in the middle of the parking lot. People started to stare and the two parents were extremely embarrassed by their child's actions. Lawleit grabbed the toddlers hand as Beyond stared walking away with Nate, towards the restaurant. L's face was red as he tugged the screaming child into his arms and took him around the parking lot to an ally where he was assuming he could calm the child down. However when he got to the ally, the sight before him made him slap a hand over Mails eyes immediately. A stripped child, no older than Mails current age in nothing but his worn down, ripped socks, scars covering his body and face, fondling with an adult mans dick. The man had his hands against the brick wall and his head tilted back in pleasure, the sick bastard. L yelled to draw attention to himself, hopefully stopping the man from molesting the young boy. Behind the man and child, a bloody body of a woman, probably the boys mother or caregiver of some sort. The man pulled away from the boy, stuffing his cock back into his pants and taking off as L took out his badge and gun. Not to shoot the man if he didn't have to, of course, he wouldn't want to scare the two young boys, but hopefully and successfully to scare the man. He really should have gone after the man, but that wasn't his main priority. He took out his cell phone as he cautiously approached the frightened child. He dialed 911 and informed them of the incident, asking for an ambulance as well, for he was certain the boy was severely injured by the looks of his body. He then called Beyond, asking him to come out and to bring some of Mail's new clothes with him, that way the boy wouldn't be naked in the cold January air any longer.
"Hi kiddo. My names L. This is my son Mail. What's your name?"
"Are you going to hurt me? Mamma and Pappa like to hurt me." The child said weakly, cowering back into the wall.
"No. I'm not going to hurt you. Can you tell me what your name is?"
"My names Miheal. But Sissy likes to call me Mello."
"Hi Mello. Can you tell me who that lady is? Do you know her?"
"Yeah, thats my sissy Ari. She's gonna wake up soon isn't she? That man Pappa sent us with said she was takin' a nap." Mello said, looking at his sister, "I usually wake her up by kicking her in the tummy, but the man did that right after she went to sleep and she didn't wake up. Is she sick?"
"I don't know sweetheart, but I'm sure she'll wake up soon."
"Oh good lord." Beyond sighed in shock at the sight of Mello.
"Did you bring the clothes?"
"Yeah of course I did L but you could have warned me!"
"I didn't want you to worry."
"Here kiddo, come on, lets get you into some clothes." Beyond said, setting Nate down to sit next to Mail against the wall with a quick, 'Don't move you two.' He came over to his husband and the boy. Mello shy'd away from the man imeaditatly. Finding himself in L's arms without even realizing what he was doing. He trusted that L wasn't going to hurt him, and if he did, then Mello deserved to be hurt. Because well, that's the way things went right? If Mello was beaten, then it was because he deserved it. He always deserved it. L took the clothes from BB and slipped them onto the toddler, shaking in his arms. It was just a black pair of sweatpants and a red striped shirt, they were too big for the small child, who was really half Mail's size, but they would do until the couple could find somewhere for him to go. If it came down to Mello going to foster care, then the couple would take him home with them instead and work on adopting him. L picked him up as they heard ambulance sirens, Mello clamped him hands over his ears and closed his eyes. Beyond took Nate and Mails hands and walked them to the car. L took Mello to the medics, who set him down in the ambulance and started to inspect him. He screamed as the tried to undress him, L ran into the car and took him into his arms.
"Shh. Mel, its okay. Your okay. I promise they're not going to hurt you. I won't let them." L whispered into Mello's ear. The boy calmed down, closing his eyes and twisting his small fingers into the fabric of L's shirt. L took off his shirt and the medics looked him over; Bandaging multiple parts of his body and stitching a deep cut in his arm up.
"Okay sir, he should be fine now."
"Thank you." L said as he put Mello's shirt back on and led the child out of the vehicle. The cops were waiting for him when they turned the corner.
"Are you Mr. Lawliet Birthday?"
"Yes. This is the boy I called about. His name is Mihael."
"Okay, we need you to tell us the entire story while Mihael will be over there, with someone from CPS." The officer said, pointing to the left of him at a woman in a pant suit.
No more than 10 minutes later, Mello was back in L's arms. Falling asleep as it was almost 10 at night by now. L and Beyond were talking with the Officer and the social worker.
"There is no way he will be going back to his parents. After what he described them as I don't think we can afford to take that risk. He'll surely be killed." The social worker known as Mrs. Kendrid said.
"So where will he go?"
"Foster care I'm afraid."
"We'll take him." L said.
"You can't do that sir."
"Please. We have the resources, we can care and provide for him better than a foster parent. I'm an investigator, my husband owns a construction business, we have two sons, one of them is his age. Could you think of a better place for the child to go?"
Mrs. Kendrid paused for a moment, thinking over the possibilities, before she sighed. "Okay. For a while he can stay with you."
"Thank you Ma'am."
"We have to get going now." Beyond said, grasping L's arm and leading him towards the car, nodding goodbye to the cop and social worker.
The car ride home was long, they had to stop at a fast food restaurant and get food for the boys. Mello woke up for a while and ate with Mail and Nate before falling back asleep in L's arms. When they returned home, they quickly put the boys to bed, laying Mello and Mail down in Mail's bed.
The two men walked into the large living room and Beyond stared at Lawliet,
"L, baby you know I love you and I would do anything for you, but that child is going to be trouble and you can see it in his eyes. I just don't think we can make a son out of him. I don't think this is a good idea."
"Well what was I supposed to do B? Leave him there? You know full well that had we not been there today Mello would have died! If it had been Mail, you would want someone to take care of him correct?"
"That's different L and you know it. Mail is a completely different child. He's had a different upbringing."
"Mello hasn't had any upbringing for Christ's sake! He's four!"
Beyond just shook his head and walked away. Leaving L in the living room alone.